Gilbert Dies

On Monday my mom and I took Madison to see a community theater version of Anne of Green Gables. We stopped at a new Peruvian restaurant for dinner first.

Madison ordered a Root-beer and I ordered a Diet Pepsi. When our server brought the drinks she told Madison that they didn't really have Root-beer so she got her a Dr. Pepper and told me she didn't really have Diet Pepsi so she brought me a regular Pepsi. I wasn't about to drink a Pepsi when Dr. Pepper was an option so I asked to switch it out and she obliged.

I took one sip of my Dr. Pepper and found that it was actually Root-beer. I took a sip of Madison's half empty Dr. Pepper and informed her that she was drinking Root-beer too. Do you see why I don't normally let her have Dr. Pepper? Something that good shouldn't be wasted on someone who can't tell the difference between it and Root-beer.

As we ate our dinner I told Madison about the first time I saw Anne of Green Gables.

I was in elementary school and my sister was put in charge of watching me while my parents were at a dinner party. My mom had spent the previous weeks taping Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea off of PBS so we decided to spend the night watching it. We loved every minute of it and watched until Gilbert was dying of typhoid fever. Then, unexpectedly, the tape ended. We were freaking out! We had NO IDEA if Gilbert died. This happened pre-google and pre-cell phone so we only had one option--to call my mom at the dinner party and ask how the show ended.

We called. I am sure my mom thought something was wrong and was less than thrilled to discover we were just calling with a question about Anne of Green Gables. She said, "Gilbert? Gilbert dies." Yes. my mother told us that Gilbert Blythe dies.

Fast forward to when I was in High School and my friend suggested we watch Anne of Green Gables.  "Are you kidding me? I refuse to watch that show. I think its stupid that Gilbert dies." My friend, very confused, said, "I take it you've never really seen the whole thing."

So I found out that Gilbert doesn't actually die. I told my sister and we confronted my mom. "Mom, so does Gilbert Blythe die in Anne of Green Gables?" "What? No. What would make you think that?"